The old students of Our Lady of Apostles Secondary School Yaba will on Friday 29th of April meet with the current students for the “Confident Girl-Child” Program.
According to the spokesperson of the planning committee, Ms Eniola Salu, “There are numerous challenges facing young girls today and as old students of this distinguished institution, we must find a way to help the girls in school to navigate life”.
She also stated that the association organised an online “Train the Trainers” program for all the facilitators. The Train the Trainers program was co-ordinated by the USA branch of the Old students body.
Some of the Old Students shared their thoughts about the program. For Joyce Okungbowa (1981 set), “The girl child is faced with numerous issues and the outcome of the session with the girls would be to educate and provide the girls with a safe platform where they can confide in confidence traumatic events in their lives”.
Bukki Ajilore stated that it is important to help the girl-child find purpose early in life. Joyce Ampka (1984) pointed out that the main challenge facing the girl-child is the unnecessary pressure from the society, parents and family and it is therefore important to guide them towards making the right choices.
Speaking on the key objective to be achieved, some of the participating, old girls aired their views.
Olayinka Akonyiron “The key objective that I hope the OLAOSA program will achieve is to give the girl child the reassurance that whatever has gone wrong in her life can be corrected and she can live a fulfilled life”.
For a US based old student Abiola Saba, (1982 set), the focus should be on helping the girl child address the issue of identity.
Do I matter? Question of identity
Do I belong? Question of confusion
Girl-Child! Identity versus confusion
For Rabi Ojelade, the 2nd Vice-President of the Association, the program must encourage the “Speak up” culture.
OLAOSA spokesperson, Eniola Salu told our Reporter that “This is the beginning of a very strategic development program for the girls attending Our Lady of Apostles Secondary School, Yaba”. She said it will also inspire other Old Student bodies (boys and girls) to seek ways of redirecting the minds of the students to positive values especially at a time like this.
Various distinguished old girls are expected at the program.